Cleaning device for textile carding machine

ABSTRACT

THE MACHINE IS PROVIDED WITH A CLEANING DEVICE COMPRISING A DRIVING CYLINDER AND A HOLLOW PRESSURE CYLINDER DISPOSED PARALLEL TO AND TANGENTIALLY ALONG THE DRIVING CYLINDER. THE PRESSURE CYLINDER IS MAINTAINED BY SIMPLY RESTING TANGENTIALLY ON THE DRIVING CYLINDER AND ON RETAINING ROLLERS CARRIED BY THE FRAME, SO THAT THE PRESSURE CYLINDER IS IN A STABLE SITUATION. THE HOLLOW PRESSURE CYLINDER IS TRAVERSED BY A NON-ROTATABLE APPLICATION BAR MOUNTED ON THE FRAME WITH THE POSSIBILITY OF MOVING AWAY FROM ITS SUPPORTRING SURFACE AGAINST THE ACTION OF RETURN SPRINGS. THE APPLICATION BAR COACTS WITH THE HOLLOW PRESSURE CYLINDER EXCLUSIVELY BY THE INTERMEDIARY OF A PLURALITY OF APPLICATION ROLLERS SUBJECTED TO THE ACTION OF ELASTIC SUSPENSION MEANS. THESE APPLICATION ROLLERS ARE PLACED AT INTERVALS ALONG THE APPLICATION BAR AND BAR AGAINST THE INTERNAL WALL OF THE PRESSURE CYLINDER ALONG A GENERATRIX OF CONTACT. THE OVERALL FORCE OF THE SUSPENSION MEANS IS SMALLER THAN THE FORCE OF THE RETURN SPRINGS OF THE APPLICATION BAR.

L. VIGNON 3,606,645

CLEANING DEVICE FOR TEXTILE CARDING MACHINE 'se t. 21, 1971 Filed July 8, 1969 17/ //vvV///////7////// 7 h United States Patent 01 Int. (:1. [501 /00 US. Cl. 19- 200 7 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE The machine is provided with a cleaning device comprising a driving cylinder and a hollow pressure cylinder disposed parallel to and tangentially along the driving cylinder. The pressure cylinder is maintained by simply resting tangentially on the driving cylinder and on retain ing rollers carried by the frame, so that the pressure cylinder is in a stable situation. The hollow pressure cylinder is traversed by a non-rotatable application bar mounted on the frame with the possibility of moving away from its supporting surface against the action of return springs. The application bar coacts with the hollow pressure cylinder exclusively by the intermediary of a plurality of application rollers subjected to the action of elastic suspension means. These application rollers are placed at intervals along the application bar and bear against the internal wall of the pressure cylinder along a generatrix of contact. The overall force of the suspension means is smaller than the force of the return springs of the application bar.

This invention relates to textile carding machines, that is to say to machines intended to disentangle textile fibres, to isolate them from one another and to straighten them while rendering them parallel, so as to produce a sort of well-cleaned sliver. The invention is more particularly, but not exclusively, concerned with carding machines for the treatment of vegetable fibres (in particular cotton) or animal fibres (in particular wool) i It has already been proposed to make such machines comprise, downstream of their principal disentangling members (large drum and combing cylinder in particular), a cleaning device comprising two tangent cylinders of parallel axes, namely, a driving cylinder driven in rotation and a pressure cylinder bearing against this driving cylinder and driven in rotation by this driving cylinder; these two cylinders, by their conjugated action, advance and compress the sheet of fibres treated at the same time as they eliminate the impurities (vegetable waste, nap, ultra-short fibres, etc.) which are still to be found in the sheet of fibres; these finally issue from the cleaning device in the form of a cleaned sliver.

It Will be appreciated that the efiicient operation of such a cleaning device (in particular with respect to the elimination as complete as possible of the waste, as well as the homogeneity of this elimination along the entire width of the sheet treated) implies a linear contact of the two cylinders along their entire length (before engagement of the textile sheet), as well as a specific application pressure as constant as possible along the line of contact of these cylinders.

Now, to obtain these two qualities simultaneously causes a delicate technical problem by reason of the bend ing phenomena relating to the two cylinders of the cleaning device, which tend to cause the appearance between these cylinders, in the median zone of the cleaning device of, a separation or gap which gives rise to ineflicient operation of the device, that is to say to incomplete and itregular cleaning.

3,606,645 Patented Sept. 21, 1971 In this regard the solutions provided by the prior art with respect to the present invention, do not resolve the problem in question.

Thus it has been proposed in the prior art to support the pressure cylinder of a cleaning device of this type by a bar of square cross-section, non-rotating, passing through this cylinder and having a transverse degree of freedom while being subjected at its ends to pressure means urging it towards the other cylinder; the pressure cylinder is supported and rigorously centered with respect to this bar by means of guiding rollers and bearing rollers carried by the bar in question without being radically movable away from that bar. With such an arrangement, the pressure cylinder can in no manner move transversely with respect to the support bar and the pressure exerted at the ends of that bar only accentuate the separation which tends to appear between the two cylinders in the median zone of the cleaning device.

According to a modification of this prior construction, the support bar is fixed to the frame of the apparatus, and the pressure means are exerted directly on the bearing rollers which are mounted with a radial degree of freedom, but, by reason of the presence of the guiding rollers, the radial movement of the bearing rollers is limited to free play of the bearing, and once all the rollers (guiding and bearing rollers) are in contact with the internal wall of the pressure cylinder, the force generated by the pressure means no longer urges the pressure cylinder towards the other cylinder and thus does not reduce the separation still existing between the two cylinders in the median Zone of the cleaning device.

An object of this invention is to provide textile carding machines with a cleaning device in which there is an effective contact and a more regular specific pressure of application all the way along the contact line along which it is desired to obtain a real tangency between the two cylinders of the cleaning device of the machine.

The textile carding machine according to this invention is equipped with a cleaning device comprising, on the one hand, a driving cylinder rotatably journalled on the frame of the machine and driven in rotation, and on the other hand, a hollow pressure cylinder disposed parallel to and tangentially along this driving cylinder, and this textile machine is characterized in that: The hollow pressure cylinder is maintained by simply resting tangentially on the driving cylinder and on retaining rollers carried by the frame of the machine, these retaining rollers being situated, with respect to the plane defined by the axes of the two cylinders, on the side towards which are directed the circumferential speed of these cylinders along their generatrix of tangency, these various elements (driving cylinder, pressure cylinder and retaining rollers) occupying furthermore relative positions such that this generatrix line of tangency is situated on the same side as the retaining rollers with respect to the vertical plane passing through the axis of the driving cylinder, so that the pressure cylinder is in a stable position during operation of the cleaning device;

The hollow pressure cylinder is traversed by a nonrotating application bar mounted on the frame of the machine with a transverse degree of freedom permitting it to move away from a supporting surface of this frame against the action of return means maintaining this bar applied against that supporting surface during normal operation of the machine;

And the application bar coacts with the hollow pressure cylinder exclusively by the intermediary of a plurality of application rollers subjected to the action of elastic suspension means under tension, these application rollers being placed at intervals along the application bar and bearing against the internal wall of the pressure cylinder along a generatrix line of contact situated, with respect to the plane defined by the axes of the driving cylinder and of the pressure cylinder, near to this plane and on the side where the retaining rollers for the pressure cylinder are located, the overall force of the suspension means being less than the force of the return means of the application bar, such that, during normal operation of the machine, the application bar remains applied against its supporting surface, this application bar being urged away from its supporting surface solely in the accidental case in which a compact wad of fibres presents itself between the two cylinders and begins to urge them apart while compressing to the maximum the suspension means of the application rollers, after which the application bar is urged away from its supporting surface against the action of its return means to increase further the separation between the two cylinders and to allow this wad to pass.

The invention will be easily understood from the following complementary description and the accompanying drawings, which complementary description and drawings relate to a preferred embodiment of the invention.

FIGS. 1 and 2 of these drawings represent, respectively in elevation with parts in section along I-I of FIG. 2, and in transverse section along IIII of FIG. 1, the cleaning, device of a carding machine in accordance with this invention.

The carding machine in question is intended for vegetable or animal fibres (in particular cotton or wool), and comprises, towards its output, a cleaning device having tangent cylinders.

With regard first of all to this carding machine as a whole, with the exception of the cleaning device which it comprises, it can be constructed in any appropriate manner.

As for the cleaning device, it comprises, among other elements and as is known in itself,

On the one hand, a driving cylinder 1, preferably solid, rotatably journalled in bearings 1a on the frame 2 of the machine and driven in rotation by appropriate driving means (not shown),

And on the other hand, a hollow pressure cylinder 3 disposed parallel to and tangentially along the driving cylinder 1; the pressure cylinder 3 will be described more explicitly now with respect to the principal feature of this invention.

In accordance with this principal feature of the invention:

The hollow pressure cylinder 3 is maintained by simply resting tangentially on the driving cylinder 1 and on the retaining rollers 4 carried by the frame 2 of the machine, these retaining rollers 4 being situated, with respect to the plane defined by the axes of the two cylinders, on the side towards which are directed the circumferential speeds of these cylinders along their generatrix of tangency G. The various elements (driving cylinder 1, pressure cylinder 3, and retaining rollers 4) occupy furthermore relative positions such that this generatrix of tangency G is situated on the same side as the retaining rollers 4 with respect to the vertical plane passing through the axis of the driving cylinder 1, so that the pressure cylinder 3 is in a stable situation during operation of the cleaning device.

The inside of the hollow pressure cylinder 3 is traversed longitudinally by a non-rotating application bar 5 mounted on the frame 2 of the machine with a transverse degree of freedom permitting it to move away from a supporting surface S of the frame 2 against the thrust of return means maintaining this bar 5 applied against the supporting surface S during normal operation of the machine.

The application bar 5 coacts with the hollow pressure cylinder 3 exclusively by the intermediary of a plurality of application rollers 6 subjected to the action of elastic thrust means under compression. These application rollers 6 are placed at intervals along the application bar 5 and bearing against the internal wall of the pressure cylinder 3 4 along a generatrix line of contact C. The generatrix line is situated, with respect to the'plane defined by the axes of the driving cylinder 1 and the pressure cylinder 3, near to this plane and on the side where the retaining rollers 4 for the pressure cylinder 3 are located, the overall thrust of these suspension means being less than the thrust of the return means of the application bar 5, so that, during normal operation of the machine, the application bar 5 remains applied against its supporting surface S. The application bar moves away from the supporting surface S only in the accidental case in which a compact wad of fibres presents itself between the two cylinders and begins to urge the two cylinders apart while compressing to the maximum the thrust means of the application rollers 6. After this movement the application bar 5 is itself urged away from its supporting surface S against the action of its return means in order to'increase further the separation between the two cylinders and to allow the wad to pass.

The return means intended to apply the non-rotating bar 5 against its supporting surface S can be constituted, in a simple and advantageous manner, by end springs 7 interposed between the application bar 5 and the heads 8a of bolts 8 passing through, with play, the bar 5 and screwed into the frame 2 of the machine with an orientation such that these springs 7 thrust the application bar 5 against the supporting surface S.

As for the application bar 5, it is preferably given a transverse cross-section so that it presents its greatest resistance to bending aaginst the transverse forces parallel to the plane defined by the axis of the pressure cylinder and the generatrix of contact C of the rollers 6 on the internal wall of this pressure cylinder. This transverse crosssection can thus have a rectangular shape with its large side oriented parallel to the plane defined hereabove.

Furthermore, the retaining rollers 4 can advantageously co-operate by abutment with the flanks of two end grooves 3a provided in the pressure cylinder 3 which is thus main tained axially stable by these retaining rollers 4.

The elastic thrust means of the application rollers 6 can then advantageously be realized by mounting the axles 9 of these rollers floatably in a longitudinal groove g and by interposing springs 10 between these axles 9 and the bottom of this groove g.

It is then advantageous to mount the application rollers 6 free on their axles 9 and to provide these axles 9 with end flats m preventing these axles from rotating, by abutment against the lateral walls of the longitudinal groove g.

The radial movement of each roller 6 perpendicular to its axle is then rendered possible by forming, in the application bar 5, transverse recesses s each adapted to receive a roller while permitting its radial movement, these recesses cutting the longitudinal groove g at right angles.

During operation of such a cleaning device, the overall force applying the pressure cylinder 3 against the driving cylinder 1 is constituted by a plurality of elementary application forces generated by the springs 10 and respectively passing through the various application rollers 6. These elementary application forces, regularly placed at intervals along the two cylinders 1 and 3, urge the pressure cylinder 3 towards the driving cylinder 1 and ensure a good tangential contact and a substantially identical application pressure at all the points of the generatrix of contact C of these cylinders, contrarily to what happened with the prior art cleaning devices.

If a wad of fibres or waste is accidentally formed between the cylinders 1 and 3, the pressure cylinder 3 is raised, the rollers 6 abut against the bottom of their recesses s and the application bar 5 in turn is raised, thus permitting the complementary raising of the pressure cylinder 3, which is necessary for the removal of this wad.

This invention is not limited to the preferred embodiment which has been described in detail, for many modifications are possible without departing from the scope of this invention.

What I claim is:

1. In a textile carding machine, a cleaning device comprising a frame, a driving cylinder rotatably journalled on the frame, means to rotate the driving cylinder, a hollow pressure cylinder disposed parallel to and tangentially along said driving cylinder, retaining rollers borne by the frame,

the hollow pressure cylinder being maintained by resting tangentially on the driving cylinder and on the retaining rollers, the retaining rollers being situated, with respect to the plane defined by the axes of the two cylinders, on the side of said plane towards which the circumferential portions of the cylinders move directly after passing their line of tangency, the driving cylinder, the pressure cylinder and the retaining rollers occupying relative positions such that said line of tangency is situated on the same side as said retaining rollers with respect to the vertical plane passing through the axis of the driving cylinder, so that the pressure cylinder is in a stable situation during operation of the cleaning device;

a non-rotatable application bar traversing the inside of the pressure cylinder, means mounting the bar on a supporting surface of the frame with a transverse degree of freedom permitting the bar to move away from the supporting surface, return means maintaining said bar applied against said supporting surface during normal operation of the cleaning device;

a plurality of application rollers being supported at intervals along said application bar, elastic thrust means under compression against the bar at said intervals and urging said application rollers against the inside of the pressure cylinder along a generatrix line of contact situated, with respect to the plane defined by the axes of the driving cylinder and of the pressure cylinder, closely adjacent to this plane and on the side where the retaining rollers are located, the overall thrust of said elastic thrust means being smaller than the thrust of the return means of the application bar, so that, during normal operation of the cleaning device, the application bar remains applied against said supporting surface, the bar being movable away from said supporting surface in the accidental case in which a compact wad of fibres presents itself between the two cylinders and begins to urge them apart while compressing to the maximum the elastic thrust means of the application rollers, after which the application bar is urged away from its supporting surface against the action of its return means to increase further the separation between the two cylinders and to allow said wad to pass.

2. In a textile machine, the cleaning device according to claim 1, wherein said mounting means for the bar are comprised by bolts passing with play through said bar and screwed into the said frame and said return means are constituted by end springs interposed between the bar and the heads of said bolts, said bolts being oriented so that said springs thrust the application bar against the supporting surface.

3. In a textile machine, the cleaning device according to claim 1, wherein the transverse cross-section of the application bar is rectangular with its large side oriented substantially parallel to said plane.

4. In a textile machine, the cleaningdevice according to claim 1, wherein two annular end-grooves are provided in the pressure cylinder, said retaining rollers engaging said end-grooves, thereby maintaining the pressure cylinder axially stable.

5. In a textile machine, the cleaning device according to claim 1, wherein a longitudinal groove is provided in the application bar, said application rollers being mounted on axles engaged in said longitudinal groove, springs being provided between said axles and the bottom of said groove to provide said elastic thrust.

6. In a textile machine, the cleaning device according to claim 5, wherein said application rollers are freely rotatable on their axles, end flats on said axles preventing their rotation, by abutment against the lateral walls of said longitudinal groove.

7. In a textile machine, the cleaning device according to claim 5, wherein transverse recesses are provided in the application bar, each transverse recess receiving an application roller while permitting radial movement of this application roller, said recesses cutting said longitudinal groove at right angles.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS DORSEY NEWTON, Primary Examiner US. Cl. X.R. 19-65; 291l6 

